Friends Like These
by JulyDragon
Summary: Next DADA class will be about werewolves. Needless to say, Remus is shocked and afraid. How will the other Maruders help him? Two-shot. Reiview, please!
1. Chapter 1

"And who can tell me the name of the strongest shield charm?" Professor Goodwin asked.

Remus lifted his hand almost immediately, though not so quickly as one of the Hufflepuff boys, who seemed to think, that he had to answer all of the question, no matter how many times he had had his hand in the air doing the lesson. _Not that I'm much better_, Remus thought.

"Yes, Mr. Lupin?" The professor said. She seemed at bit tired, Remus noted. That wasn't that surprising, considering she had used a whole hour taking care of everyone who was hit, when they hadn't been able to make the Protego charm properly. Or those or them who yelled about it, anyway. Remus had practiced with Sirius, and both of them had been hit a couple of times, but didn't feel the need to disturb Professor Goodwin just because of that.

"Protego Maxima, Professor," He answered.

"Well done, Mr. Lupin. 5 points to Griffindor. You see, the Protego Maxima charm is much more difficult…"

Remus was about to write notes, when he got pushed in the side by Sirius. He looked at Sirius, who grinned at him and pointed at a piece of parchment. Remus looked down at it, and rolled his eyes at a rather badly sketch of Miss Goodwin, praising Remus, and himself, with a cocky smile and the words 'Know-it-all' in his forehead. Remus was about to turn back to his notes, when he suddenly stiffened, and looked back at the still talking Professor Goodwin.

"… Werewolves next week. I expect you all to read the chapter on the subject…"

Remus seemed a lot paler than he had just a few moments ago. He bit his lip nervously and looked down at the desk. This was one of the first times he really, really wanted to truant. He did not want to be at that lesson. He did not want to sit there and hear the teacher talk about werewolves _like she knew_ anything _about it! _It was going to be awful, Remus was sure of it. She would say a lot of wrong things, maybe even prejudiced, and he wouldn't dare to say anything, because of the fear of a reveal._ _Don't be so stupid, Miss Goodwin's not like that, she's not prejudiced…_ _How would_ you _know? Most people are, why not her?__

He felt a hand at his shoulder, an turned to look at Sirius, whose mischievous grin had turned in to a frown. Sirius captured his eyes and they seem to tell him not to be afraid. But how could he not be? It was little more than a year since the rest of The Marauders had figured it out. He still had trouble believing, that they truly did not care. Sometimes he would wake up from a nightmare, and he would have to stand up from bed and look at the photograph at the bedside table, to assure himself that they really was still his friends.

Remus blinked surprised a couple of times. Sirius had led him out of the classroom with the others, and he hadn't even realized.

* * *

><p>"Quite shocked, isn't he?" James asked.<p>

They were in the boy's dormitory, luckily as the only ones. Remus was still very depressed about the upcoming lesson; he just sat there at his bet, with both hands around his knees and his head buried down in them, trying very hard not to cry.

"Shocked? Of course he's shocked! What does he look like, you dork," Sirius retreated.

"But he must have known, right? That'll come up some time…" James said with a shrug.

"Remus? Hey! It'll be all right," Peter said, ignoring the two others discussion, while jerking Remus' shoulders a bit.

"Yeah, 'course _that's_ going to help," Sirius remarked wryly.

"Well, why don't _you_ try to calm him down then?" Peter asked annoyed.

Sirius seemed to take that as a challenge. He step over in front of Remus' bed in a couple of long steps, sat down at his knees, lifted Remus' head, looked him close in the eyes, and said:

"We don't care, Remus! We don't freaking care, neither should anyone else!" Those was the excact same words, he had said when they discovered Remus' 'Fury little problem.' "You're going to go to that class, behave as you normally do, answer the questions and stuff, and _no-one_ will have clue. If Miss Goody-Goody starts talking nonsense about werewolves, then James, Peter and me will all lift our hands and correct her!"

Remus cracked into a smile while the tears he had struggled to control started to flow.

"Yeah! No-one shall come here and insult _our_ Remus!" James yelled and Peter mumbled something that sounded agreeing.

Remus quickly wiped the tears away with his sleeve, hoping they hadn't noticed.

"You guys are amazing," He said with a smile.

"We know!" James and Sirius said at ones.

Peter sighed, as Remus would have normally done it, but he was too busy smiling about how amazing and understanding his friends was. Though their talk hadn't removed his nervousness completely, he wasn't in a dark hole of depression anymore. He felt like he would be able to make it through. Once again, his friends had proved just how remarkable they were. He wouldn't exchange them for anything.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes:<strong> Hey! Please tell me what you thought of it, either in a PM or a review :) I might make a second chapter to this, about the actual class, but it depends on what you people think of it ^^' No reason to continue something horrible, is there? Please tell me about wrong-spellings or weird grammar as well, if you like, I would appreciate it very much!

I was actually very close to make this slash xD Like, when Sirius is 'challenged' to calm Remus down, I couldn't help imaging him going over to Remus and kiss him cockily XD I might write an AU to this, were he does exactly that. I don't know. Again, I wanna know what people think of this first.

I really, really wanna know if you find them out off character as well... This is actually the first fic I write without an OC as main character... though I've been thinking about Remus short-stories for a while. I'll probably make more of them ;) Remus is my favorite character, so it wouldn't surprise me if I did. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! :D

- July


	2. Chapter 2

The day with the dreaded lesson came quicker than Remus would have wanted it to. But then again, he didn't want it to come at all. He was at a point where he almost wished for it to be full moon, so that he could stay out of class. Almost.

The rest of the marauders didn't seem to have forgotten either. They were unusually nice to him that day; they didn't even tease him with his note-taking, which was normally a ritual, something they had to do at least ones daily. It kind of reminded him of the day of the full moon, the day of the month they seemed to be most attentive of him.

On the way to the Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, Sirius gave him a friendly pad on the shoulder, James gave him a reassuring smile and Peter a thumps up.

In the classroom he ended up sitting next to James, which surprised him a little, as James was the one it was rarest for him to sit next to. He silently wondered if it was just a coincidence or if it was something that was supposed to make him feel better.

"Good afternoon, class," Miss Goodwin said as she entered. "I hope all of you have read the text?"

Most of the class nodded slightly. Remus was skeptic. He were pretty sure there would be some who hadn't, but he himself wasn't one of them. It hadn't been that bad… Or at least it could have been a lot worse. There had been both incorrect things and… slightly embarrassing things.

"Well, then I trust you can tell me the differences between a werewolf and an animagus?"

Remus felt a strong urge to facepalm. What the differences were? How was the two things even connected? It'll be a lot easier to list the similarities! Remus felt a stamp on his foot, and saw James push a note to his side of the table.

_Remember to act normally. It'll be weird if you don't answer any of the questions. _

Remus looked surprised at the note, while hearing the hufflepuff boy, who usually competed with him in who could answer the most questions, list the differences. Normally, when Remus told the other marauders not to talk so carelessly of his secret, they just said no-one was going to figure out anyway. What had changed that?

"Very good, Jones," The professor told the hufflepuff boy.

Suddenly, Remus realized something. It had never been James who was careless. He was the one to call it a 'Furry-little-problem.' He was the one to come up with the excuses for Remus' absence, when Remus didn't know what to say. James had actually been very careful about it!

"You see, a werewolf is someone who is infected with lycanthropy. The illness turns a person into a dangerous beast and… and..." Miss Goodwin started to lose trail, at the sight of both James and Sirius hands in the air and a moment later Peters.

Remus, who had clenched his fist and were looking down in the table, looked up when the professor stopped talking. He was as overwhelmed to see his friends lifted hands, as Miss Goodwin seemed to be. Miss Goodwin seemed to get herself together, and choose to hear James.

"I assume you mean that the illness turns them into a beast at full moon, right?" James asked.

"Well, some scholars think that the illness also affects them while they're not transformed," The teacher said flurried.

Remus felt hurt by those words, but it seemed more likely, that Miss Goodwin just tried to give them knowledge of all the different theories, than that she truly believed it. James raised his hand again, but she chose to ask Sirius.

"There's no prove, is there?" He asked cockily. "The theory probably just builds on old tales and stuff."

"I don't believe so, but I am quite certain there's more to it than that. Even though there's no real prove, many scholars have written reports on badly behavior in werewolves," Miss Godwin said.

_That's because there's no one around to make us happy! Well, there is for me, but I'm extremely lucky! _Remus really wanted to yell his thoughts at her. Or just get up and leave. That'll be good too. But he did neither; instead he just clenched his fists again.

All three of his friends' hands were still raised. Remus forced himself not to laugh. Miss Goodwin seemed to see, that it couldn't go on like that.

"Is these questions about the behavior of werewolves when they're not transformed?" She asked. All three nodded. "Well, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know more about the subject but what I've already told you."

Then she continued the class like nothing had happened. Remus forced himself to answer a couple of the questions, but he didn't take any notes that class. It didn't really seem necessary.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Remy!" Sirius asked.<p>

It was later the same day. Once again the marauders were alone in the boy dormitory. James was playing with that Golden Snitch of his with Peter as audience and Remus was reading. Sirius was looking in a Quidditch magazine

"I've told you not to call me that," Remus pointed out.

"Does the transformation really hurt as much as Miss Goody-Goody described?" He asked, ignoring Remus' former remark.

Remus dropped his book in shock; they rarely talked about his condition. Which he was glad for.

"Honestly, you can't keep getting that surprised every time we mention it," Sirius said, casually, turning a page.

The conversation had gotten the other two interest now, and Remus didn't see any way he would be able to escape the conversation now.

"Sorry, what did you ask?" Remus said emotionless.

"I asked if Professor Goodwins description of the transformation was truthfully," He said, putting the magazine away.

Remus did notice that he used her proper name. Sirius is serious! _Yeah, who else would he be? _He asked himself wryly.

"If you really have to know…" He said vacantly.

Sirius nodded.

"Of course it does! All your bones are changing form, so of course it hurts like hell!" Remus yelled.

He did not know what had suddenly made him angry. His friends seemed surprised as well, but their eyes were also filled with compassion. There was completely silent for a couple of moments. Remus found himself starting to worry about, if anyone had heard his outburst, and found it strange.

"Merlin's beard! Remus John Lupin cursed! He actually swore!" Sirius started to yell, probably just to break the silence.

"Nooooh! We have influence him! Please forgive our sinful ways!" James, Sirius and Peter cried.

"Oh, shut up…" Remus said, but found it hard not to laugh.

How odd it was, really, that his friends were able to turn such a dreadful situation to something laughable.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes<strong>: To all who reviewed, thank you very much!

HPluvsGWforeva: Thank you! And see, I got you more! ;)

Cassia4u: Thank you, and here you go ^^

Kkool: Thank you. And about that, I was just sharing my thoughts. It didn't take long for me to choose against it, because 1. It might seem pretty stupid and 2. I don't think I'm much good at romances xD Especially not when it's boys, cause, you know, I'm a girl, and I'd be terrified to portray it in a way that would make actual gays facepalm.

Moony: Thanks, I'm obviously a bit of a Remus fan myself. I've always had a liking for characters who is outcasts because of something that's really not their fault. (The reason why I like Naruto, .)

EmmaR: Thanks, it means a lot to me that I portray cannon characters realistic, which is why I've been writing with OC's up to now. I'm also very glad to know you think it's written good, cause I'm actually a second language And we'll see about the AU, I would differently find it amusing to write, but I have the reasons listed above, as to why I might not write it.


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